Twenty years ago, Magdalena Maury moved to Georgia, started a private ballet studio in Fayetteville and founded Georgia Youth Ballet (GYB), a non-profit, pre-professional ballet company serving the south metro area. The Studio and GYB have enjoyed tremendous success, delighting audiences throughout the region, earning the coveted “performing company” status from the Southeastern Regional Ballet Association (SERBA), and training more than 1,000 dancers, several of whom have danced professionally with American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Royal Canadian Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Maximum Dance, Dutch National Ballet, Alvin Ailey Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Magnificat!, Nashville Ballet and Alabama Ballet. In 2005, Georgia Youth Ballet had the honor of being chosen to perform George Balanchine’s “Serenade” at the annual SERBA ballet festival in Knoxville, Tenn.

With a generation of dance excellence in the books, Maury has announced that she is changing her role with GYB and The Studio. While she still teaches and choreographs with both, she has sold The Studio and GYB to Randi Lancaster, a Maury protégé and former GYB student and professional dancer.

“I have been looking forward to retirement and the chance to travel, and the time is right,” said Maury. “In Randi, I have found a dancer, teacher and businesswoman who will continue GYB’s traditions of excellence and will add some nice touches of her own.”

Lancaster now owns and manages The Studio and serves as co-artistic director of Georgia Youth Ballet with GYB veteran Jonsie Pollock.

“Years ago, I was privileged to be ‘Miss Maggie’s’ student,” said Lancaster. “Now, I am honored to be following in her footsteps with Georgia Youth Ballet and The Studio. I am also delighted as a business owner that she is still teaching here!”

For more information on Georgia Youth Ballet, call The Studio at 770-716-9858 or visit www.gyb.us.